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Navy Admiral: Budget Is Inadequate

ROBERT BURNS

Published 8:00 pm, Wednesday, February 27, 2002

AP Military Writer

The Bush administration's proposed defense budget for 2003 would shortchange Navy shipbuilding, threatening its ability to maintain a large fleet, the commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet said Thursday.

"It's inadequate," Adm. Robert Natter said of the administration's proposal to build five Navy ships next year, one fewer than is being built this year.

Natter, in a breakfast interview with reporters, said the Navy needs enough money to build 11 ships per year to keep the fleet at 315 ships.

"It's time to start building more ships," he said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in explaining his decision not to speed up shipbuilding, told Congress after the 2003 budget was submitted Feb. 4 that the Navy will wait a few years for a faster shipbuilding budget. He said the average age of the current fleet is low enough to merit waiting.

Natter, whose command at Norfolk, Va., is in charge of all Navy units based on the East Coast of the United States, said his highest short-term priority is replenishing the Navy's stockpile of precision-guided weapons, which has been depleted by the war in Afghanistan.

"We damned near ran out in Afghanistan," he said. The supply got so low that the Navy had to borrow munitions from the Air Force, he said.

The war has taken a toll on the Navy in other ways. Natter said it has forced him to keep ships at sea longer than planned and has put unplanned wear and tear on Navy aircraft engines.

Even so, he said the Navy is ready to keep up the current pace of operations in the war on terrorism.

"We are prepared to flow every ship, every aircraft, every pilot, every sailor we have, if necessary," he said. "The problem is sustaining that for a long period of time."

He said sailors and pilots are not growing tired of the demands facing them.